


Drowned piano

by Clarisse (transnymphtaire)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Drowning, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Master of Death Harry Potter, Riddle at Hogwarts Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-17
Updated: 2016-08-17
Packaged: 2018-08-09 11:02:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7799215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/transnymphtaire/pseuds/Clarisse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's a piano being played in the Slytherin common room; there's no piano in the Slytherin common room as far as Tom knows. He goes to investigate, the dream that woke him lingering on his mind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I very rarely write Tom's perspective... and honestly, this was not what I was supposed to be writing at all.

_The soft notes of a piano filled him up in an intimate embrace, a warm contrast to the coldness that surrounded him. Pain came over him in waves; reminding him that there was no air left to breathe. He was sinking slowly but it felt as if he was floating. The fabric of his clothes were moved by the water; it danced softly upwards. His eyelashes fluttered against his skin for a moment before he opened his eyes. Above the surface, above the dark mass of water, the sky spread out like a blanket. The stars had never stood out this clearly in the darkness before. Somehow it felt fitting. Almost romantic, really. The moment of his death, and he knew nothing but ethereal beauty._

_His lips parted, and had anyone been looking they would have found the gesture sensuous; seductive. Cold water started to fill his lungs as he hummed the piano melody the best that he could. If he truly were to die, he wanted to do it with music kissing his lips. As the last note forced it way through the water his eyes fluttered close once more. The piano died out and left him frozen to the bone._

_Coldness and darkness…_

_Coldness…_

_Darkness…_

_Cold…_

_Dark…_

Tom woke up in a cold sweat. He glanced at the window next to his bed, the curtains of his bed opened although he clearly remembered closing them before going to bed. For a moment - a mere second in fact - he thought he could see a boy sinking outside the window; like he had just done in his dream. Then he blinked, and the image was gone.

He took a deep breathe to calm himself and put on his mask although there was no one awake to see him. His roommates all slept soundly in their own beds. It felt like a bad omen that he dreamed about drowning the day before the others would leave for Yule break; the day before he would be the only student left in the Slytherin dorms. Tom soon got over the notion of bad omens; he had never been a strong believer in Divination. It was surely a dream influenced by the view of the lake and his visit to the Chamber of Secrets earlier that night.

There was no need to fear drowning; the windows held strong by magic. He was simply being… ridiculous, yes, that was the best word to use. Perhaps he should set the basilisk on a student sooner than he had planned… it would help to have his first Horcrux made. Yes… after Yule would be a good time, when the students were back in the castle and Dumbledore would have no reason to look solely at him for someone to blame. He would have time to turn 16 as well then, although the number meant nothing. It only meant that he would be one year closer to being an adult in the magical community; that he would not need to stay at the orphanage the summer before his last year but could use his saved money to rent a room in Diagon Alley instead.

Wasting time thinking about the future would make him no good right now; he would have to be well rested so that he could say farewell to his Knights tomorrow morning; remind them of the books they had promised to send him. Giving the window one last wary look, Tom closed his eyes.

…

…

…

There was piano music coming from the common room; eerily remindful of the music that had embraced him in his dream. Who could possibly be awake and playing music at this time of night? Shouldering his role as a Prefect, Tom reluctantly left his bed to investigate. His yew wand seemed to give light of its own although he had not cast a _lumos_ ; the light wand almost luminescent.

With one last glance at the other beds, their inhabitants hidden behind curtains, Tom left for the darkness of the common room.

The music grew louder the closer that he got. He could not remember there being a piano in the common room, but he were not going to question it when he was in a magical castle. Surely a simple transfiguration charm would have been enough to bring an instrument into Slytherin. What he did question was the darkness that met him; thick shadows sliding against his skin. How could anyone be playing music when they could not see they keys?

He took the final step into the common room. The fireplace suddenly came to life.

Tom didn’t spare the warming fire a glance as he looked after the source of music. He found it hidden by shadows next to one of the windows; it was brilliantly white in a design that reminded him of bone. It fit the Slytherin common room as a glove yet it stood out as if it did not belong on the physical plane. Against his own common sense, Tom took a step closer, and then one more and one more until he stood next to the beautiful piano.

The person playing did not look up.

For one horrifying moment, Tom thought that he was looking at himself. The he took in the messy curls, the strikingly green eyes hidden beneath thick lashes… and the fact that the stranger, the boy, was dripping with water. How had this person entered the common room? Had he not imagined the boy outside the window?

The glow from the lake danced over the boy’s pale skin. Had it not been for the luscious red lips, Tom could almost believed that he was in the company of a corpse.

“It’s rude to stare.” the boy said, without his playing faltering. Even his voice sounded to music. It was hauntingly beautiful; Tom almost turned away as if he were going to run back to his dorm to forget the meeting. His fingers twitched against his wand.

“It’s rude to play the piano in the middle of the night in a dorm that does not belong to you.” Tom replied coldly.

“You have a very odd sense of priorities.” the boy answered and finally looked up. Tom felt his mouth go dry as the eerily glowing green eyes met his; it was like being hit by the killing curse and surviving.

“Then what do you suggest?” he asked, although he had had no intention of doing such a thing. The boy’s lips twitched, as if he was trying hard not to smile.

“How did I get in here? Why am I wet?” The boy paused for dramatics, his twitching lips breaking out in a grin. “Am I a Hogwarts student at all?”

“I saw you.” Tom answered, although it was not an answer to any of the hypothetical questions that the boy had given him. “In the lake. I thought I imagined it… but that was you, was it not?”

“Impossible.” The boy dragged the word out for dramatics. “How could I get to the lake to here in that time?”

“I didn’t say when I thought I saw you.”

The boy’s lips twitched again, the grin not faltering in the slightest. The music had not paused even once.

“How observant, Tom Riddle.”

“How do you know my name?” he asked, his tone wary against his will. He wondered if he were still dreaming, but he knew that he was not. This was real, horrifying and real. He would never admit that he considered it horrifying, that this drowned boy unconcernedly kept up a conversation while playing a haunting melody on a piano made of bone.

“I know a lot of things.”

“That’s not-”

“-an answer? I think you find that it is.”

“You’re infuriating.” Tom snapped, unhappy that he had been interrupted.

“I could say the same about you.”

“You don’t know me.”

The boy smiled knowingly, infuriating Tom even more.  
“ _You_ don’t know _me_. Me? _I_ know _you_.”

“Impossible.”

“I think you will find, Tom, that _nothing_ is impossible with magic.”

“Then you know that I have ways of making you talk.” Tom snapped once more, and raised his wand for the first time during their conversation. He pointed it threateningly towards the boy.

The infuriating boy just laughed.

“Are you really? You can’t threaten _Death_!” he exclaimed cheerfully. Tom’s fingers twitched around his wand, and his eye twitched as well as he tried to not let his mask fall - not even for a moment.

“ _Death_?” he repeated slowly. The boy nodded excitedly. Tom suddenly noticed that the piano was still playing although the boy had his hands in his lap - the hands playing the piano were made of bones. He couldn’t stop himself from taking half a step backwards; putting some sort of distance between them. He had never felt this scared at Hogwarts before.

“The _Master_ of Death, more exactly.” the boy corrected himself, his voice soft but still excited.

“You’re insane.” Tom breathed. The boy actually gave a cheery laugh at this.

“ _Lord Voldemort_! Calling _me_ insane!”

“W-what did you call me?” Tom asked, feeling himself pale. This was not going how he had imagined at all - he had believed he would have to hand out a quick punishment and then go back to bed.

“Voldemort. You do go by that name already, right?” The boy suddenly seemed terribly concerned, as if he had disrupted time itself. Thinking about it, it was _possible_ …

“You’re… you’re from the future, aren’t you?” Tom asked, intrigued against his will. He had stepped closer to the piano without noticing.

“That’s for me to know.” the boy answered with a delighted smile, that told him yes, he were correct and the boy was from the future. Tom could almost feel his eyes light up hungrily at the prospect of knowledge of his future deeds.

“What’s the future like?” Tom asked excitedly. “Do Lord Voldemort rule?”

The boy stopped smiling, suddenly emitting a serious aura.

“I killed you. There was a prophecy, and I killed you, and you killed me, and then I killed you once more after all of your horcruxes had been destroyed. I gave you a chance for remorse, and you didn’t take it.”

The boy seemed visibly upset that Tom had refused remorse. Tom, in turn, looked like he couldn’t believe a word that the boy had said.

“You barely look my age. How could you- are you-” He was unable to continue his sentence. The boy smiled bitterly.

“Looks can deceive, Tom. I think you’re very intimate with this concept.”

“Why did you come here?” Tom demanded, pointing his wand at the boy once more.

“To play music.” The answer was so honest that Tom let his wand arm fall to his side in surprise.

“You… you were the one playing in my dream, were you not?”

“Perhaps.” the boy smiled secretly.

“You never introduced yourself.” Tom realized suddenly. “It’s only fair, since you know who I am.”

“As you wish.” The boy sighed. The piano faltered although it was still played by skeleton hands. “Harry James Potter at your service.”

“ _Harry_.” Tom tried the name, and it rolled of his tongue as if he were meant to be saying it.

“ _Tom_.” Harry echoed, his name sounding surprisingly nice when Harry said it. Of course, Harry had said it earlier, but when said like _this_ …

“You should leave.” Tom said at the same time as Harry said “I should leave.”

They stared at each other for a moment. Tom gave a decisive nod. Harry nodded back.

The shadows swallowed up the piano, the last note lingering for one long, almost painful moment. Tom turned and went back to his dorm so that he would not have to see Harry disappear. He locked the dorm door behind him with a simple spell, feeling only slightly ridiculous as he did.

It was with mechanical motions that he slipped back into his bed and secured his wand under his pillow. Tom made the mistake to look out of the window as he moved to close the curtains.

_Harry’s body floating in cold water darkened by blood._

Tom blinked. The body was still there.

_Harry’s head turned against him and smiled. The soft notes of the piano started up again, embracing him like a lover might._

_Then there were only coldness, darkness, and an endless sea of red-tinted stars..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It is not supposed to make much sense. Please comment anyway.


	2. Artwork; my inspiration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a picture. It partly inspired the fic.

_[The word DEAD is repeated in black in the background, there's a bigger DEAD in red in the middle. Above the text is water. The water is disturbed by blood to the right. Through the picture is a line in light blue splatters (as from a heart monitor); it goes flat underneath the blood.]_


End file.
